Category Archives: Bomb threat

Don’t bother checking the television news networks for these two stories. You won’t find them.

The stories must not fit the narratives that the various 24/7 TV news networks are pushing. Or maybe they just won’t attract large audiences for ratings.

At any rate, yesterday two unrelated stories emerged in Utah and New Jersey that indicate that acts of individual Jihad continue to pose a significant threat to our public safety.

In St. George (YES, we noted the irony too), Utah, an unidentified high school student showed up to school with a backpack-borne Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Fortunately he did not detonate the bomb, which police indicated had the potential to cause a great deal of destruction and casualties.

The police went to the student/bomber’s home and found lots of bomb-making material as well as information on the Islamic State, which evidently the kid was promoting online.

Further investigation uncovered that the junior jihadi had taken down the American flag and replaced it with the black standard often associated with the Islamic State. He also admitted to spray painting ISIS graffiti on the school.

There is an old saying about the modern news media: “if it bleeds it leads.” Because this bomb did not detonate, the national news media is essentially ignoring this story.

For more details, check out this article from a local TV station in Utah:

Meanwhile, 2,000+ miles to the east, a little known jihadi attack case resurfaced in court yesterday. Thirty-four year old Ali Muhammad Brown pled guilty in court to murdering 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin in late June 2014 near Newark.

Readers may recall when the murder occurred that authorities and the news media both played down the jihadi angle.

In court yesterday, not only did Brown admit that it was an act of jihad, he also confessed killing three other people as acts of jihad in Washington state.

Two of the victims in Washington state were leaving a gay night club, making this the second known act of jihad directed against gay Americans, along with the horrific Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. For some reason, the mainstream news media is ignoring the fact that jihadists continue to attack homosexuals around the world.

Anyone who doesn’t realize that Hezbollah is a Jihadist organization with global reach hasn’t been paying attention.

There are too many Americans in particular who have come to view Hezbollah as strictly an organization limited to operations in Lebanon.

That just isn’t true. In fact, there can be no doubt that Hezbollah has operatives here in America, perhaps many of them. And we know that Hezbollah has supporters, including financial supporters, here in the USA.

But the latest story involving a Jihadist plot by Hezbollah comes from Thailand, a popular tourist destination for Israelis and other Westerners–and a country that is contending with an Jihadist insurgency of its own.

Thai authorities arrested two Hezbollah members who evidently confessed to a bomb plot targeting Israeli tourists.

The two Jihadis were identified as Daoud Farhat, a French-Lebanese national, and Youssef Ayad, who is of Lebanese-Filipino extraction.

Farhat held a French passport and Ayad carried a Philippines passport. Their passports indicated that both were born in Lebanon, but it is not yet certain that the passports are genuine.

Farhat was in Thailand for the first time, but Ayad has visited Thailand 17 times.

Thai investigators believe at least nine suspected foreign terrorists connected to Hezbollah are somewhere in Thailand and that one other possible co-conspirator may have already fled Thailand. One of the other suspects is said to be named Bilal Bahsoun.

This is a call that should be taken seriously. Car bombs are not particularly difficult to construct and, in crowded metropolitan areas, are difficult for police to detect ahead of time.

Car bombs have been used extensively for decades in Third World nations. The main obstacle here in the US is getting explosive material and detonation items. We saw with the attempted Times Square bombing a few years ago that this is not easy or straightforward. That car bomb fizzled due to technical mistakes made in its construction.

But we can’t depend on being lucky every time like we were in Times Square. If the Jihadis can build car bombs in places like Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon and Thailand, they can build them here.

Furthermore, the fact that Inspire is making this specific call should be treated as essentially a signal, a directive if you will, to Jihadis. History shows that one or a few will act on this call.

Where and, especially, when, is anyone’s guess. The Inspire article mentions New York, Washington, DC, northern Virginia, Chicago, Los Angeles. It mentions landmarks and sports stadiums as suitable targets, as well as major business facilities. The article also mentions the UK and France as targets for car bombs.

In the wake of this, don’t be surprised to see very strict enforcement of traffic and parking laws and regulations by US law enforcement–and don’t complain about it.

A Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert is reported to have joined a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and is working to attack targets in the southern Philippines.

The breakaway faction is referred to as BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters).

The bombmaker, Abdul Basit Usman, also known as Abu Ahmad, is reported to have trained as many as 20 other Jihadist BIFF terrorists. BIFF is believed to number between 100 and 200 members and broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) when the MILF entered into talks with the government two or more years ago.

We don’t have the color-coded alert system any more, but that hasn’t stopped the Department of Homeland Security from issuing vague alerts about the possibility of terrorist attacks.

Astonishingly enough, the alert this weekend, the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, has nothing to do with the Iraq war veterans and angry white men that Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security have been insisting are the major terrorist threat to America. The alert is about Jihadists targeting New York City and Washington, D.C.

Who would have thunk it!? Jihadists targeting New York and Washington! How novel!

Pardon us for this bit of sarcasm, but we are more than a little disgusted by Ms. Napolitano’s incompetence and political correctness. In fact, Napolitano was apparently caught flatfooted yet again by this latest threat. Just days ago she publicly proclaimed that there were no threats associated with the anniversary of 9/11 and it took reporters asking her at a news conference if that was still true for the truth to slip out. True to form, Napolitano gave a halting, cryptic reply. Later that night (Thursday), the Feds issued an advisory.

Unconfirmed reports are that the advisory came from a tip from an intelligence asset in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan.

The NYPD, which is more respected in law enforcement circles than the federal Department of Homeland Security, issued its own advisory, which was much clearer than Napolitano’s utterance. Jim Kouri over at the Law Enforcement Examiner has an article on that…

Speaking of New York, here is an interesting article on the extensive measures that the Big Apple has taken to safeguard its people and vital infrastructure. An attack on New York is an attack on the entire USA and there is no target more important, both in the minds of the Jihadists and from America’s perspective.

Finally, here is an article from the New York Daily News with further unconfirmed details about the threat. The main worry, according to this report anyway, seems to be 3 Al Qaeda terrorists who were dispatched by Ayman al-Zawahiri to set off car bombs near transit points on Sunday, September 11th…Frankly, this seems odd to us because, even with the commemoration on Sunday, the transit assets would still be much more crowded on a normal business day…

LATE ADDITION: A new report just came out from The Daily with additional details on the threat. According to this report, Zawahiri planned the alleged 9/11 anniversary operation himself. Two of the three terrorists are said to be U.S. citizens. They are said to have traveled to Pakistan through Iran. (It is worth remembering that several of the 9/11 hijackers also transited through Iran, which will often not stamp passports, thus concealing the travel of terrorists.) The Daily article is not entirely clear, but the terrorists are then said to have traveled back to the USA through Saudi Arabia or Dubai.

Germany has been the subject of multiple warnings and alerts involving Jihad in recent days and weeks. Today we are greeted with the news that a German airliner had a bomb on board in the southwest African nation of Namibia. Al Qaeda’s reach is long and the West continues to benefit from good fortune as these bombs continue to be found before they detonate.

Police have found a suspected bomb in a package bound for Germany at an airport in Namibia.

The Air Berlin flight carrying over 300 passengers and crew from the Namibian capital Windhoek to Munich, Germany was delayed after police found the “unlabeled” parcel.

According to Germany’s Federal Criminal Police, a scan of the parcel showed batteries attached by wires to a fuse and a clock.

German security officials are assessing whether the device was “a fake bomb” or could have actually detonated. If it turns out that this was a dummy device, it could very well have been a dry run…

Press Release: On August 4, 2010, at 10:03 a.m., a police officer with the Vinton Police Department stopped 34-year-old Abdulrahman Abdallah Helou of Lafayette for speeding on Interstate 10. Helou was not able to provide proof of insurance for his vehicle. The officer then removed his license plate for an insurance violation.

Upon completion of the traffic stop, Helou traveled to the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Sulphur in an attempt to retrieve his license plate. After being denied his license plate, Helou called the Vinton Police Department and threatened to “blow up” the police department. Officials with the Vinton Police Department then obtained an arrest warrant for terrorizing.

At 3:20 p.m., Helou returned to the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Sulphur. Troopers with Louisiana State Police Troop D responded and apprehended Helou. He was booked on the warrant into the Calcasieu Parish Correctional Center with a $250,000 bond.